Consumers are continually expressing the desire to not only have scent experiences on their fabrics but are becoming more discriminating as to the range of different fabric feel benefits they desire. Current fabric softeners, especially dryer sheets, fall short of fulfilling this consumer need. Many fabric softener sheets leave a dry, fluffy feeling on fabric whereas some users would prefer a “silky” feel. There is a continuing need to provide a fabric conditioning article that provide a suitable scent experience but also a different fabric feel benefit not provided by those dryer sheet products currently in the marketplace. Numerous attempts to provide dryer sheets are known. See, e.g., U.S. Patent Publ. No. 2007/0270327A1; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,133,226; 5,425,887; and 3,989,631.
Separately from the laundry field, the use of particulate lubricants has been used for lubrication of various mechanical applications as a material useful to reduce friction between two surfaces, such as for skis or moving mechanical parts such as in heavy machinery. Examples of some attempts to make particulate lubricants are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,445,797; 7,341,702; 6,660,241; and 4,915,856. It is believed that although particulate lubricant ingredients have been used in machinery applications, these mechanical applications are believed to be non-analogous to laundry. Further, no attempt to use these ingredients in the laundry field is believed to have been pursued. Furthermore, it has been believed by some that the addition of particulate lubricants, which can be insoluble and/or hydrophobic in nature, would not be suitable for a laundry application due to the difficulty working with aqueous wash/rinse systems as well as wet fabrics post wash cycle. Additionally, it is believed that the addition of small particles into the automatic drying cycle would not be recommended as these particles could be expected to be lost out of the exhaust and hot air discharge.